Angel
by Catsandorchids
Summary: 'A' came home from a very tiring day, to find Nick Fury on her couch, saying they lost the tesseract and need her help getting it back. How will she get on with the other avengers? And who is she really? set during the avengers. summary stinks but story is better :) rated T because i'm paranoid :)
1. recruitment

**AN: this is my first avengers fic, and I haven't read the comics, I've only seen the movies(iron man 1-3, Thor 1-2, cap America 1-2 and the avengers). Please inform me if I make any mistakes. Constructive criticism is much appreciated, but please be nice. Hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I really wish I owned the avengers, but sadly I don't :( Any similarities to other fanfictions are strictly coincidental. I only own my OC.**

**I hope there aren't too many grammar/spelling errors, but I make no promises as English is not my first language. Characters may be a little OOC**

**oOoOo**

"_Some think intuition is a gift, but it can be a curse as well; a voice calling to us from places that are better left unexplored, an echo of memories that will never die no matter how hard we try to kill them."_

_-Emily Thorne, Revenge_

3rd POV

Everybody has a past. Good or bad, everybody has one, and though some are honest and open about it, others prefer to keep it to themselves. But what if the past changed you? What if the person you once were is dead and buried, never to be seen again? What if you can never look back, because the open wounds that lurk in the shadow of days past will kill the last defiant mask you put on, and put an end to the only protection you have left? What if your past was so cruel that if you looked back and focused on it, if only for a moment, the price would be your future? Your life?

**oOoOo**

'A' had had a very tiring day. A woman at the café had kept complaining about her order, constantly changing her mind about what kind of coffee she had ordered. In the end 'A' had told her to stick the order up her ass, and though she'd gotten a rant from her boss about it later, it had done the trick; the woman had huffed and left. 'A' was now in her building on her way to her apartment. Her long, red, wavy hair was tied in a messy bun, though a few strands had escaped, and her waitress uniform was crumpled and splattered with a variety of stains, mostly made from coffee.

She was about to walk into her apartment when she sensed a change in energy from inside it. When she first moved there she had put up a barrier of energy around the place. People could still come in and out, but she could always feel it when someone was in there. 'A' sighed and slowly took her black leather gloves off. She readied herself, palms facing upwards, took a deep breath and walked in.

The lights were off, but as she turned them on nothing looked out of place, and she couldn't see anyone. She sighed. "Must we do this?" she asked. "We both know, I know, you're here. After all, I'm not stupid." She heard a sigh and none other than Nick Fury stepped out of the shadows, and calmly sat down on her couch. "I never claimed you were." He said. He always had a certain way about him when he was in her presence. Less commanding, trying not to provoke her in any way. He was always wary of her. Normally that would seem strange; a grown man wary of a 17-year old girl, but he had his reasons. And if he wanted her help he knew it'd be a damn bad idea to provoke her in any way.

She sat down in a chair opposite the couch, though her palms remained facing upwards; ready to use her powers if the need came. She wasn't very fond of SHIELD and did not appreciate them breaking into her apartment. "So, Fury, what is it you want from me?" she asked. "We both know you didn't come here because you enjoy my presence." "Do you remember the tesseract?" he asked. "You know I do." She answered looking down at her nails. The black nail polish had chipped and she really needed to give them a fresh layer soon. "After all, I _was_ the one who warned you to leave it be, and put it back where you found it." He put a tablet on the table between them, unsure of how she would react to what he was about to tell her. "Yesterday a man named Loki broke in to our research facility and stole the tesseract, along with two of our men." She looked up at that.

"You lost it?" she asked incredulously, not knowing whether to beat his ass or start laughing. She ended up doing the latter. "A dangerous alien energy source that several people have warned you not to go near and you just lost it?" she asked in between laughs. She was clutching her stomach trying to calm herself down. Eventually the laughing subsided. "Ahh Fury, the stupidity of your agency never fails to impress me." She sighed.

"So," she said. "What do you want me to do about it? I already warned you about it, which was practically doing you a favor, and you directly ignored my advice. I don't owe you any favors, you can cash in, so why are you here?" He looked up at her folding his hands. "We'd like you to come in, to assist in finding and analyzing the tesseract, and to help capturing Loki." She looked at him like he was insane. "Hell no! You got yourself into this mess; you best get yourself out of it. And we both know I don't work with other people. I like being on my own, and people are annoyingly curious. They ask questions, and we both know how well it works out when people ask questions about me!"

He sighed. He really didn't want to play this angle, as it was a 50/50 shot at what would happen. Either it'd get her to co-operate, or it'd get her to become murderously angry. However he didn't really have much of a choice. They needed her help on this, loathe as he was to admit it.

"We're bringing in Steve Rogers." He said. That got her attention and she froze. He didn't know if that was a good or a bad sign, but decided to keep talking. "Wasn't he the idol of a little lost girl?" he asked. She visibly paled, and light began to shine from her hands. That was not a good sign, but he continued. "I seem to recall a little girl, wanting to use her powers for good, just like the famous captain America. " The light shone brighter, but for a brief moment there was something akin to vulnerability in her eyes. "Do not speak of the dead." She hissed. He held up his hands in surrender. "Dead she may be, but she would've wanted to do this, wouldn't she?"

She took a deep breath, and then another, putting out the light. "Who else are you bringing in?" his shoulders sagged a little in relief. "Bruce Banner, Tony Stark and agent Romanoff."

She sighed, and her shoulders slumped in defeat. "I'll go pack" she muttered and disappeared into her bedroom, leaving the director of shield sitting on her couch looking relieved and a little smug.

**oOoOo**

**That's it for the first chapter! Yay! I hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a review and follow/favorite ;) I know it's a little cryptic right now but all will be explained in due time. Feel free to PM me with questions. It's a little short, but I'll try to make the next ones longer.**

**Until next time :) **


	2. meeting captain america

**Aaaand I'm back! I would've updated yesterday, but I had to go to some family thing, and didn't come home until 1:30 and by then I was too tired to write. I hope you like this chapter!**

**Oh, and thank you so much to Hemwin5, No.21 and Sashahl for supporting the story. I hope you continue to like it :)**

_Italics _**are flashbacks.**

**Disclaimer: if I owned the avengers I would be very rich. Sadly I am not. **

**oOoOo**

3rd POV

'A' had gotten to the helicarrier earlier than any of the other people on the "team". She had already found a room, unpacked, changed, and was now sitting at the bridge playing with a lighter. She'd already gotten approached twice by people saying she wasn't allowed to do that in there, but she didn't care. She was bored, and it was all Fury's fault. He was the one who'd ordered her over here and told her to stay put until Banner and Rogers came. She was so. Goddamn. Bored. And she wasn't allowed to do anything.

Fury came over to her looking very annoyed. "Put that lighter away, smoking's not allowed here!" She didn't stop opening and closing the silver zippo. "And I'm not smoking." She calmly retorted. He was about to say something else when agent Romanoff entered the room, followed by two men. Fury gave her a look that clearly said "we're not done here", but went to greet the men.

'A' sighed, but swung her feet off the table, they'd been resting on, and walked towards them. She'd only taken a few steps, when her glance fell on captain Rogers, and for a moment she couldn't breathe. Memories she'd sworn to keep buried forever started flashing inside her mind.

_A little girl with copper hair, clutching a captain America action figure, like it was a teddy bear, asking two adults, a man with blonde hair and grey eyes and a woman with copper hair and brown eyes, if they could _please _go to the captain America exhibit?_

_A slightly older girl, about 7 years old, sitting at the top of the staircase, clutching that same action figure, watching as the two adults were shot by men in black clothes. _

_A ten year old girl, copper hair now very short, for practicality, sitting in an all-white room, wondering when captain America would come and save her._

Slowly she pushed the memories away. "She is dead, don't bother thinking about it." She thought to herself. It seemed to her like it had been hours, but in reality it only took a few seconds. Luckily no one had seen her brief moment of vulnerability.

She looked at her reflection in the glass table, making sure the vulnerability couldn't be seen. Two silvery grey eyes were staring up at her, framed by thick black eyeliner. A mask of indifference was set perfectly on her pale face, which was slightly covered by the hood of the black, sleeveless hoodie she was wearing. Her legs were clad in tight black pants, paired with black combat boots and her copper hair was down, hanging in delicate copper waves. She slightly smirked. As far as everyone knew, her hair was the only delicate thing about her.

She turned and stalked over to the others. Fury glanced at her as she came up beside him, checking how she was reacting to seeing the captain. He was one of two people, not including her, who actually knew about her past. She simply lifted a perfectly trimmed eyebrow at him, smirking. She then looked over to the other three people, who were standing opposite her.

She locked eyes with other redhead. "Agent Romanoff." She greeted with a nod of her head, earning one in return. "Aren't you gonna introduce me to your friends?" she asked, teasingly. She looked at the nervous-looking brunette first. "You must be Dr. Banner" she said, smiling at him and shaking his hand. "I'm 'A'". He looked confused, but didn't question it. The captain, however, did. "Ma'am" He said, looking at her questioningly. "Your name is agent 'A'?" "Oh no." she answered, looking mortified by the thought. "No, I'm not an agent. I don't work with shield. No 'agent', just 'A'." He still looked confused but didn't say anything more about it.

**oOoOo**

Agent Romanoff walked with Dr. Banner out of the room, leading him to his lab. 'A' sat back down by the glass table, swinging her boots up on the table again. She was just about to flick open her lighter, when Rogers approached her. He stood next to her shifting his weight from one foot to another, obviously desperately wanting to ask her something.

"Out with it Rogers" she said. "I'm many things but I'm not a mind reader. You obviously want to say something so go ahead. I promise I won't bite. Very hard" He looked slightly sheepish, but took a seat in a chair next to her, looking at her with a mix of confusion and shyness. "It's just that, ma'am-"He started but she cut him off; "Please. Call me 'A'. Ma'am makes me sound old. And fancy. And I am neither." "Alright, 'A'-"he said. "I just don't understand you being here. You're not an agent and you seem very young to be in this kind of situation. What if you get hurt?"

She glanced away from her lighter, and up at him, a smile lighting up her face. A few feminine giggles escaped her mouth. "If I get hurt?" she giggled again. "Oh ain't you just the sweetest thing?" he looked very confused. "Oh honey" she said. "First of all, I'm here because fury the pirate, over there, practically begged me to come. You see I have a few 'talents' that the Society of Hypocritical, Incapable, Egotistical, Loser, Dumbasses could really use the help of. So I thought: 'what the hell, do it for the greater good, or the common good or whatever it is you hero-types always say. "" and as for me getting hurt-" she giggled again, "well there ain't a lot of things that can hurt me, and I can take care of myself." "But what if-"he protested, but she cut him off. "For instance, I doubt you could hurt me if you tried. But if you're so concerned, lets test that theory shall we?" she said while fumbling with her clothes.

"Where? Ahh here it is" she mumbled and took out a throwing knife. She put her hand out for him to take the knife. "What are you doing?" he asked, looking nervous. "Just take the knife hon, it won't bite." She said, and very reluctantly he took it. She stood, and placed herself about 20 feet from him. "Now throw the knife at me." She said. "What? I'm not going to do that, you're gonna get hurt!" he exclaimed, looking horrified at the thought. "I'm gonna be fine, just throw the damn knife!" she yelled, earning them quite a few looks from the agents sitting by the computers. Yelling at him apparently did the trick, and he threw the knife. It flew straight towards her chest, and then stopped and clattered to the floor, a foot away from her. She smirked and lifted her eyebrows at him. "See? Not a scratch." He looked flabbergasted. "How-" "an invisible energy shield around me." She smiled, pleased with his reaction. "Oh, and as for your earlier comment, I've been in worse situations than this." "Like what?" He asked, now looking slightly concerned. She picked the dagger up, put it in its sheath, on the leg of her pants and sat down in the chair again. "That's a story for another time. Or, you know, never." She smiled.

He looked like he was about to say something when an agent informed the room that they had found Loki. Fury looked at them "captain, 'A'-" He said. "You're up."

**oOoOo**

**I hope you like the chapter :) I'm trying to write longer chapters. Trying. Please follow, favorite and review :) If you have any questions/suggestions feel free to PM me**

**I will try to get a new chapter out tomorrow**

**Until next time :)**


	3. two asgardians

**Yay, new chapter! Lucky you! Don't get used to new chapters everyday though, 'cause I have a whole bunch of things to do this week :)**

**Thanks to all the people who followed/favorite! It means a lot guys! Anyway, on with the show ;) I hope its ok; I honestly have no clue how to write action scenes.**

**Disclaimer: if I owned anything that had anything to do with Robert Downey jr. or Chris Evans (or frankly any of the people involved in the creation of the movie) I would not be sitting here, writing fanfiction. I am which means I don't own it.**

**oOoOo**

'A' met with agent Romanoff and Rogers in the quinjet, and she had to concentrate really hard to avoid being affected by him being in the uniform. The words 'dead and buried' playing on a loop in her head, like a mantra keeping her from showing vulnerability. She'd changed clothes too; now sporting a black leather jacket over a black backless corset-like top and black tights with various straps for throwing knives and guns. She was still wearing her combat boots, and what looked like a bullet on a chain as a necklace.

As they got closer to where Loki was currently standing, making people kneel, she started taking off her jacket. Rogers came over to her. "What are you doing?" he asked. She didn't reply, but instead got ready to jump out of the jet. He grabbed her arm just before she jumped out. "Are you insane?!" he yelled. "You'll get yourself killed!" she rolled her eyes at him. "Relax captain; energy shields aren't the only trick up my sleeve." She jumped out and he watched in astonishment as what had earlier looked like tattoos of wings on her back unfolded and turned into real angel-wings that almost were bigger than her. The only difference was that these wings were a light golden color.

'A' turned in midair to look up at him and raise her eyebrows. "You were saying?" she mouthed. He was about to retort when their focus was drawn to the ground, where a man had stood up to Loki. 'A' immediately flew down as fast as her wings could carry her. While the captain shielded the man she went straight for Loki. She flew directly into him, knocking him to the ground. He slid across the ground with the force of the impact, while she gently landed about 10 feet from him.

"You know-"she said, walking towards him. "You people are so idiotic. No matter if you're with or against the government it's always 'ME! ME! ME!' all the time. It's very predictable, unoriginal and VERY annoying. Just keep the god damn anger in and rage on your boss like everybody else. jeesh." She was face to face with him now. "Ah, the mysterious 'A'-"he didn't get any further than that as she slapped him across the face. "That's for making me go to Germany." She stopped and looked him up and down.

"Now,-"she said. "I'm gonna give you some advice. You stop this, go home to buttgard to get your punishment, and avoid having it on your reputation, that you got beaten by a girl." "Sorry." He said, smirking up at her. "No deal." He then shot two beams of light after her and the captain, who had walked up next to her. While they were deflecting he shot one towards the quinjet. 'A' quickly deflected and the sent a ball of white light towards Loki, who had to throw himself to the side, to avoid getting hit. He was then hit by the captain's shield, and fell to the ground.

AC/DC started playing in the background but 'A' payed no attention to it. Her focus was on the trickster who was currently attacking her with his spear. He got in a hit and she staggered back a bit, while he turned his attention on the captain. 'A' got back up and threw a ball of energy at him, causing him to fall to the ground. He was about to get up when he got blasted by a repulsor, and suddenly iron man was standing beside her and Rogers, in front of Loki. Several weapons from his suit were pointing at Loki. "Make your move, reindeer-games" he said. 'A' had also formed a bulb of energy in her hand and was standing, ready to attack if need be.

Loki's cape and helmet shimmered out of existence, and he held up his hands in surrender. "Good move" Stark commented. 'A' simply smirked and put out the light. "Mr. Stark" Rogers greeted, sounding a little out of breath. "cap'n, Cupid" Stark greeted them. "Tin man" she retorted, as they walked towards the quinjet.

**oOoOo**

they were in the quinjet; Stark and Rogers were standing by the cockpit, talking, while 'A' was sitting across from Loki, trying to ignore the way he was staring at her. Finally she'd had enough; "What?" she questioned him, eyebrows raised. He smirked; "I've rarely seen that's much anger and hurt in one person. It's-"He cocked his head trying to find the right word. "refreshing." She didn't let him get to her, but instead smiled at him the same way one would smile to an ignorant child. "That's right sweetie, I'm a ticking time bomb." Her smile hardened, eyes turning angry. "Still wanna mess with me? Because I promise you; it won't be pretty." She asked.

He was about to retort when the wind suddenly picked up, the clouds turned dark, and the rumbling of thunder could be heard. A brief flash of panic entered Loki's eyes. Apparently she wasn't the only one who noticed, because the captains comment "what's the matter? Scared of a little lightning?" came immediately. Loki looked around, seeming nervous. "I'm not overly fond of what follows." He answered.

Suddenly the jet shook, and when stark was about to go out to 'investigate', which 'A' guessed meant 'kick the problems ass', a big, blonde man rushed in, attacked Stark, grabbed Loki and jumped out.

'A' jumped up from her seat and unfolded her wings, "and now there's that guy" Stark commented. "Another asgardian?" Romanoff asked, looking back at them. "You know I'm starting to think 'asgardian' is code for 'annoying'" 'A' commented to no one in particular, while Stark and the captain argued over the plan of attack. As could be expected, Stark decided to do his own thing and jumped out.

Rogers started prepping a parachute, as Romanoff commented;" I'd sit this one out if I were you." "Hell no!" 'A' said. "I don't walk away from a fight". She then dived out the quinjet, and dove towards the ground.

However, before she could enter the fight, she flew over to Loki. Someone had to make sure he didn't escape, and the others were too busy playing 'mine is bigger than yours'. She made an energy barrier around him. It wouldn't be enough to hold him for long, but it didn't seem like he wanted to run away, and if he did it could hopefully hold him long enough for her to get back.

She was about to enter the fight, when she saw the asgardian raise his hammer against Rogers. She quickly landed and threw an energy shield around them. The demigod was thrown back with the force of the impact and landed on the ground. "Now-"She said drawing the three guys' attention towards her. "if y'all are done with your little pissing contest, we could maybe go get the prisoner, that you all just left to roam free, and get back to the helicarrier?" she raised her eyebrows at them. "No objections?" she asked, looking each of them in the eyes. When no one said anything she smirked. "Good, 'cause I'm craving pizza, and I'm pretty sure they don't deliver to 'forest in the middle of nowhere'." She then turned and flew off towards the cliff where Loki still sat.

**oOoOo**

**I know guys, not my best work, but I hope next chapter will be better :) I got the tattoo/wing idea from x-men first class. Please review and let me know what you think ;) **


	4. a reality check and a threat

**AN: sorry for the wait you guys! I had 2 graduations and 3 parties to worry about, but I'm back now: ) however I still can't guarantee that ill update regularly, but I'll do my best. I'm so amazed by the reaction I've gotten, I didn't expect so many people to like my stuff :) thanks to everyone who followed, favorite or reviewed. A special thanks to Sashahl who betas my chapters to make sure my brain didn't f-up all over the page :) anyway, without further ado: the next chapter!**

**Disclaimer: only 'A' is mine**

**oOoOo**

They were standing on the bridge, watching the confrontation between fury and Loki. They were talking about the cage, and 'A' was not surprised to find that the cage was for Banner. She knew they felt that everyone they had called on for help was a threat and that they needed a way to take each of them out, should need be. She also knew they hadn't found a way with her yet, and it deeply unsettled them. She was a wildcard, not controlled by them, and they hadn't found a way to kill her yet. That was one of the reasons fury was wary of her. Of course she knew a way she could be killed, but she wasn't about to tell them that their contingency plan would most likely end her life if it came that far.

She heard fury say "you have made me very desperate" and sniggered. Loki had indeed made him desperate, when he was willing to break in to a dangerous 17-year olds apartment, to confess that he needed her help. The sniggering got her a look from the others. Thor and Rogers looked confused, Banner curious, and Natasha simply rolled her eyes. The assassin and 'A' had met before, and while they weren't friends they had respect for each other.

'A' looked back on the screen to see Fury walk out. "He really grows on you doesn't he?" banner asked. "Like a special kind of toe fungus" she answered. Rogers looked up "Loki's going to drag this out." He said. "So, Thor, what's his play?" Thor turned towards them at the question. "He has an army called the chitauri. There not of Asgard or any world know. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the tesseract." He answered, looking at them thoughtfully. "An army?" the captain questioned, looking like he'd just been told that the moon was indeed made of cheese. "From outer space?" 'A' rubbed her temples. "Goddammit when did my life turn into a corny sci-fi movie?" she mumbled.

"So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for." Banner said. "Selvig?" Thor asked. "He's an astrophysicist" Banner explained, mistakenly thinking that Thor asked because he didn't know who it was. "He's a friend" Thor said, a brief flash of concern on his face. At that point agent Romanoff decided to join the conversation. "Loki's got him under some kind of spell." She said. "Along with one of ours." "So that's why Robin Hood is missing! I've been wondering for some time now." 'A' said, a little loudly. All eyes at the table turned to her, and then back to Romanoff, who rolled her eyes. And just like that they were ignoring her again, continuing the conversation. 'A' huffed and a light in her palm started flickering on and off.

She started listening again just as Thor said "have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother." "Oh grow up." 'A' muttered quietly, but apparently it got everyone's attention, and they stared at her. She sighed and turned her piercing glance to Thor.

"Look-"she said, her voice calm, but firm. "I don't particularly want to start a fight, but you desperately need a reality check, and I'd prefer if you got it before it costs anyone a life." She rose from her chair to stand across from Thor. She was shorter than him and yet her stare could have made a giant feel small and insignificant. "Loki is jotun and doesn't share your DNA, meaning technically he is neither of buttgard nor your brother. Now I get that you feel he is your brother in all but blood. I do, but while you may think of him as your brother, he made it pretty clear he doesn't think of you as his. Now he might have been your brother, and he might've been a good one, honestly I have no experience with family, so I can't say, but that part of him is gone. Contrary to popular belief it's possible to be dead and alive at the same time. And the brother part of Loki is clearly either completely gone, mostly dead, or buried so deep he may never find it again. Now I get that you're protective of him, and don't want him to get hurt, but there may come a time when one of us has to choose between his life, and the world, and if had to, I'd choose the world. You don't have to like it, but it may need to be done nonetheless. So you need to take a good look inside yourself and decide if you can do the same. Can you choose this world and the people on it over his life? You need to decide that soon. And if you can't, you need to get out of the way, because otherwise you're just wasting everyone's time."

She huffed and sat down flickering the lid of her lighter open and closed repeatedly, not paying attention to everyone's shocked looks. Thor had a look akin to a child who's just been scolded on his face, the doctor and the captain both shocked that such a speech could come from such a small girl.

**oOoOo**

'A' had zoned off after her rant, and was sitting, playing with her lighter, when Stark came in. "it's a stabilizing element." He said, answering Dr. Banner's question. "It means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD. No hard feelings point break, you've got a mean swing." He said, clapping Thor on the arm. "It also means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long as Loki wants." He walked up to the screens, looking over the agents at the computers below. "Raise the mizzenmast, jib the topsails." He said, causing everyone to stop what they were doing to stare at him.

He then revealed, that one of the agents below was playing Galaga, and started talking science talk, but 'A' was no longer paying attention; he'd planted a bug. Apparently she was the only one who noticed, because no one said anything about it. She'd have to talk to him about it later.

"Could you guys stop science-flirting with each other?" she asked Stark and Banner who'd been talking in what she decided must be another language. "-its making me wanna hurl." they both gave her odd looks, while agent Romanoff was trying to hide a smile at her comment.

**oOoOo**

They had all split up eventually, and 'A' was now making her way down to the labs, where the nerds were. Neither of them looked up as she walked in the door, too caught up their work.

"You know-"she said, effectively getting their attention. "In our line of work not paying attention to your surroundings can get you killed." "Is that a threat, power girl?" Stark asked, looking amused.

She smiled and took a step forwards, leaning against a table. "No that wasn't a threat Mr. Stark-"she smiled even brighter.

"-this is" she said, her smile turning colder, and sharper. "I saw you place that bug at the bridge, Stark, and honestly; I get it. SHIELD is not very trustworthy, and I get you wanting to know their secrets, and I'm all for it, I wanna know a few too, especially some of Fury's. But-"her eyes hardened and her voice turned cold as ice. "You go anywhere near what only concerns me, my privacy, my files, and I will drain every last drop of energy from your body, until you are painfully struggling for breath, your brain, your coherent thoughts, shutting down from the lack of oxygen, until only panic and pain is left, until you are _begging_ for death. And then I'll put it all back. And do it again, and again, and again, until I am satisfied that you are worthy of death. And then I'll kill you. Understood?"

She asked, smiling warmly again, looking at the two men like they were kindergarteners who needed to learn something really simple. No answer came, but she smiled anyway. "Good. Well, I best be on my way, I'm training a bit until we find the tesseract. Ciao!"

With that she turned, and walked out of the lab.

**Sorry for the wait, but I have a little writers block, which I'm trying to overcome. I hope you liked it : ) please review and tell me what you think, and what you would like to happen in the next chapter(I'm not promising I'll do it, but I'd like suggestions:)**


	5. revelations

**So sorry for the wait! I've been on holiday in Germany, and couldn't bring my computer. In other news I think my computer might actually die soon (it's been one problem after the other for a year now) and I'm contemplating what to do if it does, since I don't have the money for a new one. Oh well ill figure something out :) thanks for the reviews/follows/favorites; they encourage me to continue writing. A special thanks to my beta Sashahl, who makes sure my chapters aren't a result of my brain pooping all over the page(trust me, it happens)**

**We'll learn a little more about 'A' and her past in this chapter. As always enjoy, and please share your thoughts/feelings about it in a review.**

**Disclaimer: I'm just playing w/ the dolls, and then I'll put them back in the dollhouse**

**I apologize if Tony and Bruce seem too familiar with each other, after only having known each other for about a day.**

**oOoOo**

"Tony, I don't think this is a good idea. I mean, she just said she didn't want us to-"

"It'll be fine Brucey, she was exaggerating."

"but-"

"Relax, you're too tense. It'll all be fine. Besides, I doubt she could kill me if she tried."

This argument had been going on since 'A' had walked out of the room an hour ago. Of course by telling Tony he couldn't go near her files, she had just made him more curious, and as he was too impatient for his bug to do it, he was currently hacking in to their database himself, while Bruce was standing behind him disapprovingly, trying to convince him to leave it alone. Captain Rogers had come in at one point, distracting them, but he'd left a little while later, probably trying to find some answers.

"Yes!" tony shouted, victoriously, as he finally got the right file up on the screen. There was then a slight pause, as both scientists read the information this girl had been very eager to hide.

The tense silence that came afterwards was only broken by Bruce muttering a faint "oh my god".

**oOoOo**

'A' had been training for a bit when she felt it; a strange tension in the air. At first she ignored it, figuring it was probably her paranoia or the discomfort she felt from constantly being close to other people, making her tense up. But as she continued ignoring it, the tense energy building up only grew, and she realized that something was off. So with an annoyed huff (really why couldn't fury or one of the agents fix these problems, so she didn't have to do it) she set off to where she sensed the energy coming from.

She followed the strange pull she always got from dark energy, and as she got closer to the room, where she could now hear heated arguments coming from, the tension grew. Inexperienced people wouldn't notice they were being affected, but she had far too much experience with dark energy, and recognized the symptoms immediately.

The closer she got, the more annoyed and frustrated she got, feeling irritated, vulnerable and defensive. Standing outside the door to the lab she could feel the air of darkness, she could taste the bitter taste it always left in her mouth, and she knew that unless someone did something this was going to end badly. Because she knew what the symptoms were, it was easier for her to separate the dark feelings from her own.

Easier, but not easy.

She took a deep breath and tried to drain some of the tension from the air, absorbing it into herself, so the others would be less affected. Then she walked in.

Inside arguments, accusations and verbal abuse was spewing left and right, and she drained a little more of the tension from the atmosphere, trying to calm everybody down.

"What's going on?" she asked. None of the others had heard her come in and they all startled, and stared at her.

Romanoff was standing tensely near the door, but neither she nor fury answered her. It was tony who, after looking her up and down, took a step towards her saying "_what's going on _is SHIELD using the tesseract to make weapons of mass destruction. But didn't you already know that, little miss mysterious?"

'A' immediately turned to stare accusingly at fury. "Please tell me that is not true" she said, her voice monotone and scarily calm. He didn't answer her, choosing to simply ignore her instead. "I warned you! I warned you to put it back where you found it, and you just said you had it under control!"

"So you _did _know they had it?" Tony asked anger clear in his voice. "You did know they had it, but you didn't do anything to stop them? Who's to say you're not in on it then?"

"That's ridiculous, I'm not in league with this agency, besides-" Tony cut her off. "But you've worked with them more than any of us have. You even knew they had a powerful alien energy source _before _they lost it."

"Yes, but I tried to warn them! I told them to leave it be! Besides you've worked with them just as much as I have, yet you didn't do anything _at all_ about it! "

'A' could feel herself losing control. She was juggling the dark energy, the huge amount of tension, these planted feelings of hatred and anger, her own feelings of anger and her powers all at once, and she knew that if she didn't calm down soon, she wouldn't be able to keep in control. She also knew that she couldn't calm down in this room.

A light in her palm had begun flickering on and off, but she didn't have the capacity to stop it right now. She was losing control and she _hated _not being in control.

She knew she had to leave before things got out of hand. The others were starting to yell at each other again and she couldn't drain anymore tension out of the air, without consequences. She stood up a little straighter, took a deep breath, turned and took a few steps towards the door. She had to _get out! _ She was a few steps from the door when his voice stopped her.

"Is little Miss Alice Kingsley-Jones running away again?"

His voice was ice-cold and mocking and in that moment everything froze.

She stilled instantly, her body rigid, and it seemed that everything in the room was holding its breath.

Furys attention was no longer on the argument he was having with doctor banner, but instantly on the girl who was currently facing towards the door, a feeling of anxiety, foreboding and – was that a touch of panic? – filling his being. Stark did not realize the stupidity or danger of the words he'd just uttered. This was very, very bad.

Banners attention was also on the girl, annoyance at stark and pity for her filling his eyes. Yes, tony did not always think things through - he'd learned that very quickly – but this was downright cruel.

Rogers was confused. Was 'A' Alice? What was going on?

Then everything unfroze. 'A' was slowly raising her head a little more, and then she released the darkness she'd absorbed. The tension levels in the room skyrocketed and it suddenly felt like all colors were being drained from the room.

Tony didn't get the hint, and continued his mocking.

"Oh, did that make the little girl scared? Yes I read your file, I know who you are. Little Alice, born in surrey, to parents Michael and Karina Kingsley-Jones. Lived with them 'till she was seven, which was when she saw them murdered in her own house. Kidnapped to an experiment facility in Germany, later moved to the US, where she was tortured and experimented on 'till SHIELD raided them when she was 16. What's the matter? Didn't like being a lab rat?"

The tension had continued rising until it was becoming difficult to take a breath. 'A' still hadn't turned around or moved much at all. Everyone, even Natasha, was holding their breath, waiting for any reaction, but apparently tony wasn't finished yet.

"You're just a scared little girl, pretending to be a hero. You'll never be anything else."

"No." 'A' said in a voice so sharp and cold it made an icicle look soft. She didn't raise her voice, which only served to make it worse; quiet angry was always much worse than loud angry. She slowly turned around, the look in her eyes so dangerous a chainsaw looked like a big fluffy teddy-bear in comparison.

Then she spoke again.

"Alice Kingsley-Jones was a scared little girl, wanting to see the good in people, to be a hero. That's true. But Alice is dead. That little girl you read about is dead. She died slowly, then suddenly, always in an unbearable amount of pain. Alice is dead, 'A' is left. You should've learned difference. Because Alice would've spared your life, forgiven you, but 'A' is going to kill you."

A strong light pulsed from her hands as she stepped forward, ready to pounce on the iron man, to give him a worse death than Alice to make him beg-

A beeping faintly registered in her mind-

-then the world exploded.

**I think that's the first time I'm leaving you with a real cliffy! I'm excited to hear your opinions on this chapter; were the characters a little too OOC? Was it good? Was it crap? Please review and tell me what you think :)**


	6. a life debt

**I'm alive! So sorry for the wait, I've been very busy. But anyway here I am :) **

**Disclaimer: you know I don't own it. All rights to their respective owners and all that jazz**

_**Italics**_** are flashbacks**

**Special thanks to sashahl who helped me with this, when I was out of ideas. **

**oOoOo**

'A' landed heavily on her stomach, accidentally twisting her ankle in the fall. She quickly got up, though she kept most of her weight on her right foot. Fury, the captain and the stark idiot were all picking themselves off the floor, though she couldn't see agent Romanoff or Banner anywhere. Fury called her attention to him; "Stark, 'A' you go fix that engine. Now." He then walked off with Rogers, while stark left to get his suit.

For a few seconds, she honestly considered killing stark and leaving the others to deal with the problems. She didn't sign any contract and it really didn't have much to do with her. Loki and the tesseract weren't her problem. She could kill stark and fly away, and just leave the others to deal with the mess. It would probably be better for her health, both physical and mental, in the end.

But then there was that small annoying voice in her head. Her _conscience, _in the form of Alice. The little girl she'd almost succeeded in hiding away, until Stark ripped open old wounds, destroying years of progress. That little voice saying, that it would be _wrong. _That she could be a hero, be _good_, instead of the weapon she was meant to be. She had been given a chance to stand for something, shed better use it.

So it was with a mental sigh that she hurriedly changed to her battle clothes and ran off to the broken engine.

**oOoOo**

Stark was already there when she arrived. He didn't waste any time in ordering her around; "I'm going to fly in there and push, while you try to send power to the engine, so it'll start. I need you to pull that red lever over there, on my call, so I can get out without getting shredded. Understand?" she didn't answer, instead just putting her hands on the electric panel, and started to transfer the power. Stark had just started pushing the blades, when five men, clad in black, ran out and started firing their guns at her. She sighed in annoyance and rolled her eyes.

"Men; thinking guns will fix everything."

Her shield was up, so the bullets did no harm, and clattered to the floor. She rose from where she'd been crouching and promptly kicked one of the guys in the head and grabbed another by his ears, looking him in the eyes. Dark brown eyes, not a hint of blue, stared back her.

"Huh, so you guys aren't being controlled; you're just plain old dickheads. Fair enough, I can work with that. Means I get to do this"

She unsheathed one of her throwing knives, and sent it straight to one man's chest, making him fall to the ground, dead. Another man, the one with the brown eyes, pushed her out of the helicarrier, but she simply unfolded her wings, flew back on deck and delivered a punch to his head, then swiftly pulling him overboard and letting him drop to the ground far below. Yet another man got a knee in the groin and a quick snap of his neck, while the last one got a bullet in the chest.

She then walked over to one of the bodies, and fished the knife out of his body, wiped it off on the man's sleeve, and put it in its sheath on her thigh.

**oOoOo**

She was leaning on the wall by the lever, inspecting her nails, when the tin man spoke up.

"I'm gonna need you to pull that lever soon."

She didn't move. "I _could _do that, but I'm not entirely sure you deserve to live, rather I _know_ you don't. It could be so easy. I was simply-"

"Pull the lever!"

"-too late. The big bad men distracted me, and-"

"Lever! Now!"

"-I didn't reach it in time. I'll feel terrible about it of course, but no one's perfect. And who's going to blame the scared, traumatized little girl?"

"Hit the lever!" he was starting to lose control.

"Oh alright… but only if you say 'please'"

"Please hit the goddamn lever"

With a heavy sigh, she pulled the lever, and stark came flying out of the engine, sparks flying from his suit every now and then. He landed next to her, and his helmet came up. He was about to say something, but she wasted no time in having the first word.

"See, in case you didn't realize, I just saved your life. I did it for a very specific reason, and it wasn't your pathetic attempt at saying 'please'. It's a metaphor; I own your life. You die, when I decide you get to die, and when you do its going to be slower and more painful than getting shredded by an engine. When we're done, when we've fought Loki and won, when we've had our last hurrah, that's when you get to die. Not before. You're lucky, you know; you get to have a last attempt at glory, you get to say your last words, and from what I've gathered there'll be many of those, you get to see the people you love and say goodbye. That's a lot more than many people get. And once that's done you get to die at my hands, and if your goldfish memory can remember that far back, you'll see that I've even told you exactly how you'll die.

With that she walked ahead to the bridge.

**oOoOo**

She was halfway there when she heard it over the comm.

"Coulson's down."

"Medics are on their way"

"They're here. They called it."

Nothing more was said, but she stopped, and just stood for a while. While she didn't know him very well, Coulson was always her favorite. He was one of the two people who originally knew about her past, and he'd been there the day shield raided the facility she was held captive in.

_A scared teenage girl cooped up in the corner of her "room", knees to her chest, listening to the commotion outside. The doctors hadn't come to fetch her for her "procedure" as they always did before dinner. Instead she could hear gunfire and shouting which frightened her even more._

_Something similar had happened before, but then one of the head doctors had come to her room and pulled her with him down dark hallways and into an emergency hideout. No one had come for her this time._

_Suddenly the door to her room opened and five men clad in black stormed in. they were holding guns and shouting, making her press herself to the wall and attempt to make herself smaller. It also resulted in the room turning much brighter since her hands lit up. She tried sitting on them to dim the light but it didn't help much. "Sir we've got a live subject here!" someone shouted, and a man with finely combed hair and dressed in a suit walked in. he looked out of place next to the other men. _

_He walked in and slowly walked towards her, slightly crouching. "Hi sweetie, what's your name?" he asked. She looked between him and the other men with a panicked look in her eyes. Apparently he noticed because he ordered the men to leave. He then crouched down next to her. "My name is Phil Coulson; I work for an American organization called 'SHIELD'. I'm gonna take you home. What's your name?" "Alice" she whispered her voice rough from only being used on screaming for the past nine years, simultaneously afraid of the man and wanting him to save her. "And where's your home?" he asked trying his best not to look threatening. "I have no home"_

**oOoOo**

**Sorry if I got something wrong, I don't remember this scene that well.**

**So I feel like I might need to explain, why Alice didn't make tony apologize for what he said. I know most people might want an apology after that sort of thing, but Alice doesn't. She doesn't feel like words hold any power, actions speak louder than words in her case, because she's lost faith in words. Words can be empty in ways actions can't. Alice simply doesn't feel an apology will change anything, he still said what he said, and he can't take it back, so how would an apology help? **

**Please review :) the more reviews the faster I update :)**


	7. coming to terms

**New chapter! Yay :) **

**Only own my character**

She stood for a moment, trying to push the memory back down, trying to shake off the feelings that were rising up inside her. She hadn't known Coulson well, and she hadn't trusted or befriended him, but he was still the first SHIELD agent she'd met, and the one who'd gotten her out of that hellhole. He'd still been her favorite agent.

She mentally shook herself. 'One less person who knows about me' she told herself, trying to go back to feeling nothing, or at least trying to make it look that way. She'd never felt nothing, not for a second, but it was easier to let people believe that. If people knew you had feelings, they knew you could be hurt, that you were vulnerable, and shed promised herself to never be vulnerable again. So it was with the slightly saddened, however mostly indifferent mask set perfectly in place, that she walked back to the bridge, to meet up with the others.

**oOoOo**

The only ones other than fury and herself, who came to the bridge, were Stark and the captain. Apparently everything had gone to shit while they were fixing the engine. Evidently, the good doctor had gotten mad, gotten green and gotten big, which lead to him jumping out of a window. He was most likely still alive, but they didn't know where he was. Both of the demigods were missing as well – Thor had gotten thrown out of the helicarrier in a cage, and Loki had escaped. But on the plus side; Robin Hood had gotten 'cured' and was in a room in the medical bay. Agent Romanoff hadn't left his side since he'd gotten there, and 'A' wondered if she was the only one able to see the obvious romantic feelings between the two. She figured she might be, given that most of the agents in this organization were idiots.

Fury was standing in front of the table talking about 'the avengers initiative' but 'A' wasn't really listening, most of her attention focused on throwing a knife up in the air, and catching it again. Stark abruptly stood and left, the captain following shortly. Fury sighed and focused on her for the first time since she left the lab, what felt like long ago, but probably wasn't any more than an hour, maybe two.

"Do I need to worry about you?" he asked, putting on his best 'I'm the boss-man' look. "I doubt I can stop ya." She answered absentmindedly, still fiddling with the knife. He gave her an exasperated look; "I mean, can you be professional, or do I need to worry about you randomly killing Stark or any of the others?" she sighed and put her knife back in the sheath on her thigh. "I'm gonna keep my options open, but for right now I've got an agreement with Stark. However, if he does anything like that again, ill skin him." Then she got up and left, going to find the idiot and the hero.

**oOoOo**

When she got to them, they were in the middle of a conversation. She stopped outside of their line of sight, listening in.

"He made it personal."

"That's not the point-"

"That is the point, that's Loki's point! He hit us all right where we live, why?"

"To tear us apart."

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great, but he knows he has to take us to win right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us; he wants to be seen doing it... He wants an audience."

"Right, I caught his act in Stuttgart."

"Yeah, but that was just previews, this is opening night. And Loki's a full-tail diva; he wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument build to the sky with his name plastered… Son of a bitch!"

She went in then. "So what you're saying, is that Loki's as big a diva as you, and to prove that, he's gonna use your tower? You men and your egos are just always trouble, aren't you?"

This startled both of them, making the jump and immediately look at her in shock. "Well?" she said. "are we gonna stand here looking like idiots, or are we gonna do something about it?" with that she left to go find the two other agents, desperately hoping that they wouldn't be making out or worse, when she came in. she just didn't have the energy to deal with that, and she'd need all the energy she could muster.

**oOoOo**

She was sitting in the quinjet, on the way to New York, quietly fiddling with her bullet necklace, lost in thought. If the others noticed her unnatural silence, they didn't comment, probably chalking it up to nerves. The truth was that she was wondering about death. At this point it was becoming clearer and clearer to her that they'd most likely need to use the contingency plan, for this to end well. And though she might not always be completely honest to herself, she didn't kid herself about this. She knew she wasn't going to survive that. The contingency plan was her, and she knew that the use of it would kill her. She'd been close to death many times, too many to count, but she still caught herself wishing for more. More time, more hope, more love, more friends, just more. More out of life. She'd wished for death more than once, but now as it came to her, she caught herself wanting to run. To run and run and keep running to the ends of the earth, to a place where she'd be safe. She silently chastised herself; 'you'll never be safe, you know that. That ship sailed a long time ago.'

She touched the bullet on her necklace and felt a twinge of regret at the touch. She wanted to shout at the top of her lungs, wanted to curse at whatever gods above had decided to rob her of a childhood, and then rob her of a future. There were things she wanted to do, and she knew she didn't have the time to do them. Then that awful voice from the back of her mind spoke up; 'just as well' it said. 'A monster like you doesn't deserve to live anyway. Its justice.' She'd tried to push that voice down, since the scientists had put it in her head so many years ago, but right now she just didn't have the energy. Instead she abruptly rose from her seat, and walked toward the door of the jet.

"What are you doing?" the captain asked. "I'm going to fly the rest of the way." She answered, trying not to sound the way she felt.

"Why?"

'Because I want to feel the wind in my face, the freedom of flying, one last time before this.' She thought. Instead she said "because its way more fun." And smiled what she hoped looked like a carefree smile, before she jumped out of the jet.

**That's it for this chapter, but I have big plans for the next chapters! I hope you're gonna like what's in store! I hope to update soon, but I make no promises as the next month or so is really stressful for me. As always please review and I hope you enjoyed!**


	8. the battle

**I'm still alive! Well…. Kinda... Sorry for the late chapter, but school has been killing me. Just started a form of higher secondary school(called 'gymnasium' in Danish) and the teachers thought it'd be fun to see how much homework and how many long days they can pile on us before we break. Safe to say I'm not amused… and I HATE homework. A lot. So while I should probably be working on my Danish essay, I decided to procrastinate and write this instead since you deserve it more. Let me just make it clear that certain comments in this chapter aren't an attempt to make a Bruce/Tony romance(though if you ship it and feel like it works as that go for it) but rather sarcastic comments meant to tease. **

**I don't own, you don't sue.**

She was soaring through the air, towards stark tower, when it happened. The sky above the egocentric asshole's skyscraper was split by a cone of light, creating a portal. Suddenly the sky was littered with the gray aliens, attacking anything they could think of. 'A' vaguely registered the sight of a red and gold metal suit, flying amongst the chitauri, using repulsor blasts to try and take them out. She unconsciously let out a muttered "holy fucking crap" and even vaguely heard the captain muttering "language." in her earpiece. However she quickly picked her jaw up off the ground, and with an extra burst of energy sped off towards the portal, destroying every alien coming close to her.

**oOoOo**

They'd been on the ground, trying to figure out what to do, Thor having recently joined them, when they heard the sound of a motorcycle coming closer. They looked for it, confused, only to find dr. banner, coming towards them "Stark, your boyfriend's here." 'A' said over the earpiece, while taking in the appearance of the good doctor. . He was wearing clothes that looked a bit big on him, and definitely weren't what he was wearing when he 'fell' out of the plane.

"So.. This all seems horrible" he said, looking at them. "I've seen worse." Romanoff commented, looking him right in the eye. He looked guilty and sheepish. "Sorry." "No it's ok; we could use a little worse." Then the assholes voice sounded over the earpiece; "tell him to suit up, I'm bringing the party to you" a crashing sound was heard, and stark appeared around the corner, a leviathan coming shortly after. "I-I don't see how that's a party.." agent Romanoff said. "Oh come on Romanoff, where is your imagination?" 'A' said, but was distracted by the captain; "Dr. Banner!" he said, "now might be a really good time for you to get angry." The doctor turned around, looking at him. "That's my secret captain; I'm always angry."

With that he turned and slowly grew, skin turning green. " whoa" Alice said, staring openmouthed for a moment, before gathering her bearings, jumping out of the way of the falling pieces of leviathan, as the hulk had just punched it in a way that 'A' had to admit was epic. Next thing she knew, they were all standing in a circle preparing to defend their planet, as even more leviathans came from the portal. "Call it captain." stark said. "Alright. Until we can get that portal closed priority is containment. Barton-"he pointed at the archer, "-I need you on that rooftop, eyes on everything, call out patterns and strays. Stark, you get the perimeter, anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash." As the two flew off he pointed at her. "'A' I'm gonna need you in that direction-" he gestured in the direction where a lot of civilians were too shocked or panicked to get away from the amount of chitauri currently moving towards them. "-get their attention away from the civilians and take down as many as you can." "Sure thing honey" she said, taking off toward the mass of aliens.

**oOoOo**

She was hovering in the air, just above the street, trying to take out three aliens at once. It wasn't necessarily that the aliens were very good at fighting, but those damned guns hurt like a bitch. She'd been hit by one of them on her left thigh and she didn't want a repeat of that. As one of the aliens charged towards her, she made a swift kick at its stomach while throwing a knife at another's throat. She scrunched her nose up in disgust as she drew out the knife and saw that it was sticky with thick greyish blood.

"You fuckers really are disgusting" she said, to no one in particular, as another attempted to surprise her by jumping at her from behind. She flew a bit to one side so the creature didn't hit her, and gave it a knee to what she assumed was its groin.

She was about to take on another as something caught her eye. The civilians, they weren't running, but instead just stood and stared. She eyed them unbelievingly. "What the fucking hell do you think you're doing? You think this is a joke?" they didn't answer. "Run for fucks sake, are ya stupid?" some moved, but most still stared at her. She flew towards them gesturing for them to move with her hands. "Shoo! Get out of here! This is a fucking battlefield!" that apparently shook them out of their shock and they turned and with an air of panic, clumsily ran away from the fight. She didn't notice the person in the crowd smirking at her, if she had things might've happened a lot differently.

However this had distracted her and she didn't see the chitauri coming towards her with a sort of spear weapon in time to put up her shield. It came right at her, but she did manage to turn just in time, so that it pierced her arm instead of her stomach. She struggled with the chitauri on top of her, but finally got her trusty dagger out of her boot and stuck it in the creature's chest. It made a screeching noise, and she pushed it off her.

"A? Are you okay?" came the captain's voice in her earpiece. "Fit as a fiddle cap." She answered, grunting as she stood.

**oOoOo**

She flew up into the sky, taking out random chitauri on her way. When she deemed that she was up high enough, she assessed the battlefield. The hulk was hidden behind a wall of gunfire and explosions, Hawkeye was running out of ammo, the captain and black widow were fighting side by side, but outmanned and outgunned, and though Thor and iron man were doing their best it was obvious that everyone was running on steam.

She heard the widow mutter "we gotta find a way to close that portal.." in her earpiece and knew that the small hope she'd had of not using the contingency plan was gone. She was gonna sacrifice herself for this. She was needed. "I can do it." she said into the earpiece, slowly landing on the ground and making her way toward the stark tower. There was a brief pause on the other side of the line and she decided to clarify; "I can close the portal". And with that she was standing at the foot of the tower, looking up at the portal. She heaved a sigh and flew upwards toward her death.

**So that was it for this chapter :) The plot I came up with when I first got the idea of this story is coming soon and I'm excited to see if you like it. Have you figured out what the contingency plan is yet? And do you have any guesses as to who the smirking person is? Please leave comments, reviews and guesses, as I'm really excited to see what you guys think! 'Till next time!**


	9. the contingency plan

**Guess who just looked forward to writing this chapter so much that you're getting it early? :) Well that and I don't have that much homework today... yet.. So, no one really posted any guesses as to what the contingency plan was, and who the smiling person was, which is of course your choice, just feel free to share theories in the reviews, I love to hear what you guys think :) I listened to Florence and the machine's album "ceremonials" while writing this (especially seven devils) so feel free to check them out, if you want to listen to some music while reading this chappy. I apologize if any of the dialogue is wrong, it's been a little while since I saw the movie and I can't remember everything. Anyways, on to the drama XD**

**Disclaimer: if you haven't figured out that I don't own marvel by now, then I worry for you. I did, however, create Alice all on my own**

**oOoOo**

As she landed on the roof of the tower, memories started to overwhelm her.

_A little girl sitting at a round table with her parents, opening her birthday present, the small flames of birthday candles flickering in the background. _

_A man with mild wrinkles around his eyes lifting the girl up onto his shoulders, walking in the city, while she talked on and on about the newest captain America action figure._

_A man in dark clothes putting a bullet in between her mother's eyes, the way she fell back onto the carpet, pale and still, while she tried to stifle her scream, the man turning towards her-_

**No. **

She stumbled on the roof, trying to catch her breath. No. She wouldn't think of that, not when she wasn't gonna live much longer. She wanted to remember the good things, the birthdays, the Saturday afternoons watching movies on the couch, the museum trips, the picnics, not the deaths. Not the things that had made her 'A'.

She had walked over to the tesseract device without even noticing it, and was now standing right in front of it. A man, Dr. Selvig she figured, was lying unconscious about 5 feet away, but she didn't pay him any attention, opting to contact the others again instead. "Ready when you are cap." She said into her earpiece.

"To close the portal?"

"No, to go get lunch.. Yes to close the portal. Duh."

"No, wait!" Stark said suddenly. "Stark these things are still coming!" "I got a nuke coming in and it's gonna blow in less than a minute… and I know just where to put it." A nuke? Really? A _nuke_? What kinda plan was that? Gather the 'earths mightiest heroes', send them into battle, and then just nuke the whole damn city? Why hadn't fury told the council of the contingency plan? How stupid were these people? "Stark, you know that's a one-way trip.." at this 'A' butted in "I thought we had a deal, Stark; didn't we agree that I was gonna be the one to end your life? " "Well, technically, I didn't agree to anything, you just talked." He replied, not at all sounding like he was about to fly to his death. He didn't say anything other than that, but a few minutes later he was flying upwards, just narrowly missing hitting his own tower. It took less than a minute and then he was gone, disappearing into the portal and taking the nuke with him.

There was quiet for a moment, it seemed like everything had paused, and then all of the aliens, leviathans and chitauri alike, fell to the ground dead. Instead of celebrating though, everybody was staring at the portal, waiting for a certain annoying asshole to come flying out. He didn't. A moment passed, and another, but Stark didn't appear. Then it was like the group collectively sighed with defeat and the captain gave the order;

"close it 'A'." "Captain-"she replied "call me Alice." Someone might as well do it, and if anyone was allowed, it'd be him. And maybe there was a tiny part of her, the part that was still the child she'd once been, who just wanted to hear him say her name. She was about to die anyway, she might as well admit that she wasn't just 'A'. Just like she wasn't just Alice. She was both, and right now it'd be really comforting to hear someone call her by her name. Besides, she didn't want to be buried in a grave with only the letter 'A' on the tombstone. She wanted to be buried as Alice Kingsley-Jones. She wanted to be buried as herself, not as someone she pretended to be.

"Alright-"he said, seemingly surprised "close it Alice." She took an extra step forward, and caught herself wanting to run. To run and run and run, she'd been through too much for it to end this way. But it would. This was it. This was what she was supposed to do; this was what she was here for. She couldn't run and leave people to die for her cowardice. So she took a deep breath, reached out and touched the tesseract, letting her power flow free.

Instantly there was pain. No it wasn't just pain; it was agony. She forced herself to hold on, to keep absorbing the energy, even though every fiber of her being wanted the torture to stop. She heard an ear-piercing scream, but it took her a while to figure out she was the one who'd done the screaming. Her back arched and her knees gave out, but she didn't let go of the cube. The other avengers might've said something in her earpiece, certainly they'd heard the screaming, but she didn't register it. There was only the pain, the raw power of the tesseract, and she could feel it trying to take her over, make her a slave to it. However she fought that. She might die of this, but she wouldn't let it take her over.

The pain was blinding, and she was reminded of the torture, of the procedures from her past. This was worse. This was much, much worse than that had ever been. Just when she thought she couldn't hold on to the infinity stone any longer, the pain dulled, and she fell to the ground of the roof. The pain hadn't stopped, but it was no longer pain from the tesseract itself, but rather the pain of having that power within her. She was lying on the roof, gasping for breath, and vaguely heard the captain saying something like "son of a gun."

She was still lying on the roof, vaguely listening to the commotion of saving stark in her earpiece, shuddering every now and then when the tesseract tried to fight her. The first coherent thought she had was _why aren't I dead?_ As the shudders grew gradually worse, she figured out the reason. She'd been wrong; the tesseract wouldn't kill her, not instantly. What she'd though would've been a quick death, would really be slower and more painful. The energy inside her, the one that made her alive and that her powers were tied to, was fighting the energy from the infinity stone. And it was gonna lose. Eventually, she estimated it'd be a few hours' tops, her energy would be completely gone, swallowed by the tesseract, and she'd be dead. She wasn't getting out of this; it'd just gotten slower and more painful.

As another shudder overcame her a thought popped into her head, definitely being more from 'A' than it was from Alice. _Get up! Get up now! You can't show weakness! Get up get up get up!_ And though she knew it was stupid and pointless, since they'd probably find her dead in a few hours, she obeyed. She stood shakily, almost fainting before she regained her balance. She heard in her earpiece, that the others were nearing the tower, wanting to take care of Loki before doing anything else. She unfolded her wings from their current tattoo state, and tried to gather balls of energy in her hands, but hardly any light appeared. She clenched her jaw and tried to concentrate harder, but the light just flickered blue for a moment and then flickered out. She sighed with a mix of exasperation, annoyance and defeat; she'd just have to fake it. She gathered her remaining strength and jumped off the roof.

**oOoOo**

She landed outside the entrance of the tower, just as the others came up to it, her copper hair blowing around her. None of the others seemed surprised, though Rogers jumped a little as he was the one she landed closest to. She nodded her head at him in greeting, hoping nobody noticed that she was more out of breath than usual.

"Rogers" she said, hoping to sound calm and collected as she greeted him. "Please, if I get to call you Alice, you should call me Steve." He said sounding every bit like the well-mannered 40's poster boy he was. She was about to reply, but stark butted in. "wait, he gets to call you Alice? That's not fair! Why don't the rest of us get to call you that, cupid?" She sighed and turned to him with an annoyed expression and a slightly quirked eyebrow.

"See you decided to join the living then. Just as well, means I get to kill you. And no, you don't get to call me Alice, you lost that right on the helicarrier." Steve decided to interrupt before Stark had the chance to answer." Could you two not try to kill each other for a moment, at least until we've taken care of Loki? That'd be great" Alice sighed. "Sure, sorry Steve" she turned to face the entire group "so what are we gonna do now then?" "You didn't hear over the earpiece?" Barton asked, disapprovingly. "Well I was a little busy closing the portal and saving your damn asses." In that moment another shudder came over her, and she could feel the tesseracts energy stronger. She stumbled slightly.

"Hey, are you okay? You look a little sick" Rogers-Steve asked. She turned her face away from them and made sure her indifferent and sarcastic mask was set perfectly in place, before she turned again. "Where are your manners Steve?" she asked teasingly "you never tell a woman she looks anything less than beautiful. But if you must know I _was _in a massive battle today, so that might be the reason." "And shouldn't we get going? You know deal with the jealous demigod and all?" Stark motioned for her to fly ahead, but she kept standing "Nah, I think I'll take the elevator with the non-flyers today. See ya up there." She then walked as quickly as she could towards the elevator.

**oOoOo**

When they were in the elevator she noticed Steve looking at her curiously, a hint of concern in his glance. She sighed and looked him in the eye "Come on Steve I'm not a kicked puppy; I hurt my wing slightly in the fight. It'll be fine by morning, but right now I'd rather not fly. So can ya stop staring at me? It's getting annoying." He muttered something, but turned his eyes away. She caught a glance of her reflection in the side of the elevator and froze. One of her eyes was bright blue, the other her normal grey. She slightly shook herself, and blinked a couple of times quickly, until it returned to normal. She sighed. She was fading faster than expected.

**oOoOo**

After they'd bound Loki, with a muzzle and everything, and delivered him to some SHIELD agents, they went back to the tower. As they went into the lobby there was a flash of red and then a thin redhead was clinging to Starks arms. "oh-my-god-Tony-im-so-sorry-i-am-never-leaving-my-phone-again-ever-are-you-alright?" she said in one frantic breath, clinging to him. "Relax pep, I'm fine." Tony said, and he couldn't conceal his smile or the way he just instantly seemed happier when she was there. _This is it._ The Alice part of her said _this is why you shouldn't punish him. He has a girlfriend who loves him, and you would ruin her too._

Alice shook her head, and cleared her throat, to get the lovebirds' attention. "Oh I'm sorry." The woman said reaching a hand out to shake. "I'm Pepper Potts, Tony's girlfriend." _Be friendly _Alice reminded herself. "I'm 'A'" she said shaking Peppers hand. She knew she shouldn't, but she drew a little of the woman's energy into herself, just so she could hold on a little while longer; she felt like she might pass out. It wasn't even noticeable as the woman was so hyped up. "nice to meet you 'A'" Pepper said, not asking about the one-letter name, which immediately earned her some points in Alice's book. "Likewise."

**oOoOo**

They'd all gathered in Starks living room in the tower which, though partly damaged, was very luxurious. Alice could feel herself fading, and her hearing was zoning in and out, so she got up and, trying to speak in a normal non-wheezing way, asked where the nearest bathroom was. "Just down the hall to the right." Tony said for once not adding a sarcastic comment. She got up and walked towards the hall. It couldn't have been many feet away, but it seemed like it was extremely far away to her.

She'd just gotten to the start of the hall, when she stumbled. _No. no, it can't happen here. They can't see. No!_ She thought. "Hey are you okay?" Barton asked, but she couldn't find her voice to answer. She tried to take another step, but suddenly she was leaning heavily against the wall. She could distantly hear someone calling her name. Then suddenly she was on her knees. Her body swayed for a moment and then fell forward. She could vaguely feel someone turning her around so she was looking up. A face was in between her and the white ceiling, but between her tunnel vision and everything being blurry, she couldn't tell whose it was. The last thing she registered was someone yelling her name. Then everything went black.

**oOoOo**

**yayyy long chapter! Please review, follow and favorite!**


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